1915] on The Piano-Player— Scientific Aspects 405 



Educational Problems. 



The average children of player owners will not wish to spend 

 much time in acquiring manual dexterity with scales and five-finger 

 exercises. The exceptional genius who wishes to be free from the 

 limitations of the music roll will still require this practice, but will be 

 in the rare minority. In place of the present "practising," the 

 children will require to practise exercises in player manipulation, and 

 they will begin by learning the meaning of the expression marks 

 on the roll. The exercises will be mainly devoted to : 



1. The control of the speed regulator and the acquisition of the 

 sub-conscious or instinctive faculty of playing every note or chord at 

 the desired instant. Practice in accompanying. 



2. The production of differences of expression and touch, includ- 

 ing those described in this lecture, and the acquisition of the power 

 of accenting parts of chords in any part of the scale. The pupil 

 must not be satisfied until he has learned the exact action corre- 

 sponding to every note on the keyboard. For school practice in 

 player manipulation automatic accent perforations and separation of 

 bass and treble halves must be forbidden. A school prize should be 

 given for the best rendering of some composition. 



The pupil will, however, require some training in the structure of 

 the music, and he should also acquire some familiarity with musical 

 notation. For this purpose there will be needed a scale to be placed 

 in front of the tracker showing the black and white notes, and in 

 addition special rolls marked in such a way as to illustrate : 



1. The rulings of the treble and bass clef in the ordinary staff 

 notation. 



2. The relative value of semibreves, minims, crotchets, quavers, 

 etc., and the corresponding rests. 



?i. The distribution of the sharps and flats in different keys. 



4. The meaning of such terms as staccato, legato, arpeggio, 

 trills, etc. 



5. The lengths of the various musical intervals, such as major 

 third and minor fifth. 



Finally, in order to acquire practice in reading music, the pupil 

 may learn to cut his own music rolls. Appliances for this purpose 

 are' already obtainable, and will doubtless become common in the 

 future. A school class in roll cutting should prove an efficient form 

 of manual training, and prizes could be given for the best cut roll. 



I have recently tested one of these roll-cutting devices, and shall 

 probably use it as' occasion arises for acquiring familiarity with com- 

 positions performed at our local concerts which are not included in 

 the makers' catalogues. Roll cutting has now become far easier than 

 one would have imagined possible. I believe it may become an 



